The FF Plus has asked the acting Free State MEC for Police, Roads and Transport, Mamiki Qabathe, as well as the acting head of the Department, Mosa Tlali, to urgently extend the office hours of Free State test centres so as to enable motor vehicle drivers to renew their driver’s licences in time.
The amnesty period for driver’s licenses that expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 December 2020 is only valid to the end of August this year.
The FF Plus has been inundated with complaints about offices that are closed for days, in some cases even weeks on end, test centres that do not have enough forms and forms or papers that cannot be printed.
The Free State is experiencing challenges at test centres across the entire province with limits on the number of persons that may be helped per day and a lack of staff to handle the process. This has resulted in an enormous backlog in expired licenses.
Restricted office hours, problems with infrastructure and resources as well as stringent Covid-19 regulations hamper the application process and as a result, many drivers cannot file their applications in time.
These proposed measures will encourage drivers to lawfully renew their driver’s licences in the time available to them. It will also avoid long queues and the expected rush at test centres in the days just before the deadline.
As the central point of the South African road network, the Free State ought to set the example when it comes to law-abiding road users and, therefore, the FF Plus demands that the Department must give its full cooperation to ease the process for the people of the province.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Armand Cloete on FF Plus
